Just a Nightmare
by ToothlessFuture
Summary: Hiccup is having nightmares. The villagers and dragons are acting strange. Just a coincidence, or something more sinister?
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Legends**

It is told that hundreds of years ago, when the gods had just raised the land from the sea and the Vikings were just starting to make their journeys and raids, hulking beasts dominated the skies. Appearing in different shapes and colors, these gigantic winged reptiles were the most terrific thing one could ever see. The dragons that plague the Viking colonies nowadays are nothing, _nothing_, compared to what these beasts were.

No one knows where they came from, but it was rumored that they were created by the gods in some sort of competition of displaying powers. What was known, however, was that these demons seemed to bend the lesser dragons to their will, forming themselves armies that darkened the sun and left nothing alive in their wake, no humans, no animals, no plants, nothing. They were the essence of fear; they were the Overlords.

What was fortunate to whole mankind was that these creatures seemed to be only interested in fighting and defeating each other. If one was unlucky enough to witness one such a battle, but lucky enough to not be noticed, he could tell afterwards of the flames that seared the sky and made it glow enough to make the difference between night and day almost nonexistent.

This is the point where the stories differ; why there aren't any Overlords left to be seen. Most simply say that they killed each other off, and those who won eventually died in their wounds themselves. But one source is different. According to that, one Overlord eventually gained so much power that its might challenged even the gods. That after a failed attempt to dethrone the gods, Odin himself made sure that no Overlord could ever again roam freely, and so the Overlords disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Of course, all of this is just legends, mere stories to inspire the young warriors.

* * *

Berk. An remote island at the Northern seas. An island of vast forests and rugged cliffs. An island of tough weather and hard work. It is the home for a tribe of Vikings, and surprisingly enough, to a group of dragons.

Such a co-existence was unheard of until recently, when a scrawny teen, not even considered to ever become a good Viking, changed everything. By befriending and forming a strong bond to an injured dragon, he eventually managed to break the circle of death between Vikings and dragons. That was ultimately achieved when the teen and his dragon killed an extraordinary large, parasitic dragon called the Red Death. And Red Death… she was one of the Overlords.

* * *

**A/N: Just rewrote parts of this, I'll be updating every single chapter in the following weeks, and then finally, new chapters! :D**


	2. Chapter 1: Rain in the Night

**Chapter 1: Rain in the Night**

_Hiccup, it was just a nightmare; I don't get what you are freaking about. I have nightmares every now and then myself and I don't bother my mind with them after I wake up._

Yeah, right.

Hiccup sighed at the memory of Snotlout's reaction when he had made the stupid mistake and thought that talking to his cousin would help. Hah, not even close. Not that he would be usually upset by some nightmares, but now…

It was a year since the dramatic event that leaded to him losing his left foot. But the very same event gave him a status as a hero and made the village, but most importantly his father, to accept the dragons. Hiccup couldn't have dreamed things to be better, sure he had some trouble adjusting to his new leg, and the stump hurt sometimes, but everything had still been perfect. Unfortunately, right there laid his problem. _Had been._

Birds chirped happily in the trees and whole forest bathed in sunshine. Hiccup himself wasn't in a very sunny mood when he wandered around randomly, trying to gather his thoughts. But nevertheless the fact stayed that he feared he was going mad. The dreams, nightmares, whatever they were, had haunted him every single night since he had woken up after battling the Red Death. At first they had been just faint, unmemorable visions, nothing more that dreams you didn't pay any attention to. But they grew stronger. Now it was not just the visions of death, pain, and loss, but also the voices… Oh gods, the voices were whispering things to him in his dreams, things that he couldn't remember afterwards. So yes, Hiccup was sure that he was going crazy.

Hiccup sat down to a mossy rock and buried his face to his hands. He felt so tired, but didn't want to sleep. It would just start all over again; he would face the Red Death again, over and over again. Only if someone would listen to him, he might feel a little better. But no, it was no clear that Toothless was the only person who would listen to him without declaring him mad at the instant. And where was Toothless at the moment when Hiccup needed him? Probably sneaking at the docks, stealing some fish.

Slowly Hiccup stood up and headed back towards the village. The little walk at the woods hadn't helped at all; he could as well go see the others at training arena. Recently he had noticed that he had some talent in fighting with sword, and training did help in not to think about certain dreams.

As he closed the arena, he could hear the sound of metal striking against metal, a blade meeting another. There were no dragons held captured in the arena anymore, and now it was just used in ordinary combat training. Even though dragons didn't make raids anymore, there were still many other threats to train combat for.

The dragons had blended into the everyday life of Berk almost surprisingly well, only ones complaining were the fisherman who got their fish stolen by a sneaky Terrible Terror every now and then. And sometimes Toothless did that, too, although he hadn't been caught in action.

By far the most common dragon breed in Berk was the Terrible Terrors, which had taken over the role of cats in killing vermin and being cute. But they also happened to ignite small scale fires when fighting over territory, and that was why there were buckets of water stored in every house. Just in case.

The Deadly Nadders were the second most common breed, and the bright-colored dragons were the favorite dragon of choice to Berk's women. Even Astrid was riding a Deadly Nadder, even though they weren't very good flyers. Maybe she had something in common with the hot-tempered, aggressive dragon, Hiccup chuckled.

Monstrous Nightmares and Gronckles were almost equal in numbers, sharing the third place, but because of the very different behavior of the two breeds it appeared that there would have been a lot more Nightmares than Gronckles. It was just the fact that Gronckles used to sleep most of the time, more or less hidden from the sight, whereas Nightmares couldn't have done more to make themselves noticed. No wonder Snotlout had picked a Monstrous Nightmare as his dragon.

Other dragon breeds seen on Berk were the two-headed, exotic Hideous Zippleback, which heads sometimes argued with each other (really hilarious unless you're riding the dragon in question), and Changewings, an acid-spitting dragons with lizard-like body build and large wings. Then there were also one Night Fury, Toothless, and one Skrill. The weird thing was that the Skrill, Igniter, was his dad's dragon. Hiccup didn't believe that Stoic would ever be able to tolerate dragons enough to get one himself, but it seemed that he was wrong. The name Igniter came from the fact that Skrills have really sticky fire, that can't be put out by any means. Only thing one can do to extinguish the fire is to wait until the gel-like substance the Skrills spat out instead of breathing gas burns out.

Upon entering the arena Hiccup saw many adult Vikings practicing their skills with swords or axes, but also two teens about his age. Tuffnut and Fishlegs. Tuffnut was long, not very strongly built boy with long, blond hair and scarred nose. The reason for the scars was that one particular Terrible Terror liked to chew his nose for some reason. That's why Tuffnut was paranoid of letting any green Terrors close to him without protecting his nose with both hands. Tuffnut also had a twin sister, Ruffnut. Their little argues were known by every villager in Berk.

Fishlegs was almost the exact opposite of Tuffnut. He was large, strong boy with short, brown hair. Unlike the other teens, excluding Hiccup, Fishlegs was the only who liked to read. He loved to memorize the classifications of different dragon breeds, and nowadays he was working on updating the Dragon Manual with all new information gained from the village's dragons. He also had a dragon, a Gronckle named Horrorcow, who reminded Hiccup a lot of Fishlegs himself.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Fishlegs greeted him.

"Ha!" Tuffnut yelled and sent Fishlegs' sword spinning away with one strong blow. "Don't look away from your opponent while in combat", Tuffnut said with a wide grin on his face.

Fishlegs went to pick up his sword, muttering some incomprehensible complaints on his way there.

"So, Hiccup, you came here to train with us?"

"No, actually I just came to look how you're doing there." Hiccup said. He wasn't really in the mood for fighting at the moment. Besides, he would have probably just dropped the sword, so tired he was.

"Oh, why, were doing fine. Are you sure you're not looking for someone?" Tuffnut questioned, with a knowing look on his face. He had been like this since Hiccup had recovered from the battle against the Red Death.

"Well, actually I was hoping to find Snotlout here."

Tuffnut looked suspicious, but didn't say anything. Fishlegs returned with his sword and answered eagerly: "Snotlout? He was there just an hour ago; he went off to fly with Fireworm."

"Thanks, I'll go look for him, see you around!" Hiccup turned to walk away but Fishlegs stopped him. Hiccup noted Fishlegs' expression and guessed what was coming.

"Hiccup, I have made some interesting observations of Changewings' behavior", the large boy explained. "You should come to see how I'm advancing with the new Manual."

"I'll try to find some time tomorrow, alright?"

"Yes, thanks Hiccup. See you tomorrow."

Hiccup chuckled to himself when he thought about Fishlegs. He was always so overexcited about anything that related to dragons. Hiccup walked along the path from the arena to the village. He really had to talk to Snotlout again, but if he was flying with Fireworm he could be anywhere. Meaning that it could wait until tomorrow. It looked like he was going to have a busy schedule tomorrow.

As it was starting to rain and getting dark, Hiccup decided to head home. When he entered the house he saw Stoic there adding some logs to the fireplace. Stoic turned around at the sound of door slamming shut. Few Terrible Terrors who were warming in front of the fire jerked their heads up and looked at Hiccup lazily.

"Son, is everything alright?" Stoic asked when he noticed Hiccup's expression. "You look… well, worried."

"It's nothing dad, I'm just tired. Has Toothless come back?" As an answer a black figure emerged from the stairs and greeted Hiccup with a lick to the face. "Happy to see you too, bud", he laughed and dried his face to his sleeve. "I think I'll go straight to bed."

Stoic raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to eat anything?"

Hiccup stopped at the stairs and sighed. "No, I just want to sleep now. Come Toothless."

Well, at least it was partially true, as he really was tired. But the truth was that he didn't want to answer to the questions his dad would certainly make. So he walked upstairs to his room, Toothless following him like a shadow, and left his dad standing there somewhat confused.

Hiccup sat at the edge of his bed and begun to open the straps that hold the metallic leg at its place. At least the stump of a leg hadn't ached badly for a good while. Toothless sat down in front of him and looked at him expectantly. Hiccup tried to ignore the gaze of the dragon but the stare became more intense and questioning and he had to give up. "I don't know what to do Toothless, I haven't been able to sleep properly in weeks", he said and placed the fake leg on his table. "I'm sure that they are not just dreams, there's something more to it…" The Night Fury crooned soothingly and nuzzled his shoulder.

"I think I'll pay a visit to the elder tomorrow, she knows a lot of stuff, and hopefully she can help." Hiccup was also sure that she wouldn't tell to anyone about his problems even if she wouldn't have a cure for his nightmares… or whatever they were. They felt so real.

It rained heavily outside and Hiccup buried himself under the blankets. He noted that Toothless was keeping a worried eye on him at the end of his bed. He pretended to sleep to calm down the dragon, but no matter how tired he was he didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to live it all again.

Finally Hiccup made a decision that it was ridiculous to actually _fear_ falling asleep, and he laughed nervously when he imagined his father's reaction if he would hear about this. Listening to the drops of rain he finally fell in uneasy sleep.

_The air was full of fire and smoke and furious roars. "Watch out!" Hiccup shouted when a massive burst of flames rushed towards him and Toothless. The Night Fury reacted immediately but it was already too late, and the fire caught the leathery fake tail fin. It wouldn't take long until it would be burned useless and they would fall. "Alright, time is up. Let's see if this works!"_

_Toothless snarled at the gigantic dragon as he turned the flight into a dive. Hiccup hold tightly to the saddle and prayed to the gods that this would work. The huge maw opened in front of him and Toothless boldly flew between the opened jaws, irritating the enormous dragon even more. It roared in frustration and dived after them._

_Wind blew his hair with increasing power as they gained more speed every second. The tyrant dragon was still getting closer, and Hiccup could feel Toothless starting to panic. "Stay with me buddy, we're good. Just a little bit longer." He tried to comfort Toothless. At the same time the giant snapped at them but narrowly missed. Soon the ground could be seen trough the heavy clouds and his plan would be tested. "Hold, Toothless," he instructed and quickly looked behind. It was just as he had guessed – the dragon was building up gas in its throat. "NOW!"_

_Toothless spread his wings and turned around so they were falling back-first. He fired a shockingly bright blue ball of fire at the Red Death's mouth, igniting the gas that was still at its throat. It bellowed in horror as the sky cleared at the same time and it saw the ground only hundred meters below. But then it narrowed its eyes in concentration again. Hiccup felt the cold chills going down his spine. Not again…!_

_Toothless turned again to slow down the speed, failing to notice that the mountain-for-a-dragon was still diving after them, not even trying to slow down. "No, NO!" Hiccup screamed, his voice shattering. It was all useless. The heavy paw stroke brutally against Toothless' side and send the dragon and his rider spinning wildly off course. The safety strap that was made to prevent Hiccup falling off the saddle broke and he fell, separated from Toothless. A violent explosion shook the whole island just before he hit the ground._

_Eerie silence landed on the shore along with falling ash that rained down like some twisted snow. Hiccup got back up to his feet and noted that he was somehow miraculously undamaged from the fall. But he already knew that he wouldn't be hurt… he also knew what would follow and horror filled him._

_He looked around, and his heart almost stopped when he saw the black, broken figure lying on the rocky shore some distance away from him. Hiccup run to the downed dragon and couldn't stop his hands from shaking. Toothless was lying on his left side, breathing weakly. Very weakly. Hiccup's legs were trembling. The right side of the Night Fury was totally shredded by the hard scales of Red Death, and crimson blood was quietly pouring out, forming a puddle under the dragon. Hiccup collapsed on his knees. "Toothless…" he whispered. His mouth felt as dry as a desert. The bleeding had to be stopped, he realized suddenly. "HELP, SOMEONE HELP!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, but there was no one around. It was like all the Viking warriors on the shore had vanished in thin air. Fighting against the growing desperation and panic, Hiccup ripped off his riding vest and removed his long shirt. Quickly he pressed the shirt against the wounds, trying to use it as a bandage. It was of no use, the shirt was way too small._

"_Hiccup", a voice whispered. It came somewhere over distance, and at the same time it was like the whisperer had been just behind him._

"_Hiccup." The voice was soft, calming, and powerful. Hiccup stood up, trying to locate the speaker. "Hiccup, you can't save him. I can. Come to me."_

"_Who are you? Where are you!" Hiccup yelled._

"_I am the only one who can help. Come to me…" The voice echoed for a while and then faded away._

Hiccup bounced up sitting, breathing rapidly. He was all sweaty. He let his gaze travel around the room, only to see that nothing was out of ordinary; Toothless was sleeping on the floor at the end of his bed. It was still raining outside. Toothless was alright, and Hiccup relaxed a bit. But still, he was sure that he couldn't get sleep at this night anymore.

* * *

**A/N: Edited this slightly (5th November). I'm so intending to wrap this up :P**


	3. Chapter 2: Creeping Upon

**Chapter 2: Creeping Upon**

Hiccup slowly attached the metallic leg to its place while the first rays of light shined trough his room's window. Toothless observed his doings from his place at the end of Hiccup's bed. The dragon looked somewhat worried. _I must look really horrible_, Hiccup thought and yawned. He couldn't have let himself to sleep for the rest of the night. The idea of seeing Toothless again in that state was too horrible. It felt so realistic, as it wouldn't have been just a dream.

Sighing deep Hiccup stood up and almost fell when his right leg suddenly couldn't support his weight. Toothless was immediately at his side, supporting him, like he had been since he had lost his leg. Hiccup smiled faintly at the Night Fury. "Let's go eat some breakfast, shall we?"

Toothless hummed an answer and helped him descend the stairs to downstairs.

The fire was burned out and the main room was empty. His dad had apparently left early on his duties as the chief of the village. Hiccup grabbed a loaf of bread from the table. He began to eat it while looking for Toothless' saddle.

"Maybe we could go flying today, what you think?" Hiccup asked mouth full of bread.

Toothless barked happily and sat down; waiting for Hiccup to find the saddle that was lying at the corner of the room.

After a good minute of searching Hiccup noticed the saddle. "Oh, there it is." _I can't live like this_; he cursed to himself and dragged the saddle at Toothless. The Night Fury waited patiently until Hiccup had tightened every single strap and the saddle was firmly at its place. As soon as Hiccup had finished the job Toothless almost jumped out of the door, towards the fish bowls. Cool, salty air greeted Hiccup as he left the house right on Toothless' trail.

From the front door of the Haddock's house opened a view directly to the center of the village, a small, round opening with houses surrounding it. Directly at the middle was a large bowl, previously a torch used to scare invading dragons during a raid, but now it was filled with fish and given a new purpose as a feeding place to the dragons of Berk. At least to those that didn't want to or weren't able to hunt it themselves, like in Toothless' case. And more importantly, it helped to spare the villages stock of sheep.

As the teen and the dragon arrived at the bowl there were already several dragons, some with their riders, eating from the recently-filled bowl. Hiccup recognized a few Gronckles, one Zippleback and many Nadders of the eating group. Especially one Nadder with stunningly bright blue scales, orange-striped tail and beautiful multicolored wings caught his attention. It was Stormfly, Astrid's dragon, formerly a captive at the kill ring. Unfortunately there was no sign of its rider nearby. Although it was just a good thing, as Hiccup would've probably said or made something stupid in his current condition.

Hiccup answered to the greetings of the few Viking warriors that were also feeding their dragons. He wasn't in an especially talkative mood and so he was relieved when Toothless had finished eating. After a quick thinking he decided to go visit Gothi first before doing anything else. Instructing Toothless of their destination, the couple headed towards the outer reaches of the village, where the cottage of the elder was situated.

En route there, Gobber stopped him in front of the workshop. "Hiccup! I was hoping to meet you, I need your opinion on a few items", he explained.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Oh, since when you have needed _my_ opinion on your work?"

Gobber laughed and gestured Hiccup to enter the house. "Well, these things are planned for dragons and I don't know anyone who would be better at judging if they are suited for their job than you. Being a great dragon slayer and everything." The large blacksmith had a glimpse of humor at the corner of his eye.

As Hiccup entered the workshop, he looked in surprise at the item that was hanging from a hook at the wall. It was some kind of spiky – "A battle helmet for Monstrous Nightmare!" Gobber introduced it proudly. Toothless looked curiously at the long metallic plate system that was in two parts, connected with leather to allow the dragon to open its jaws. The Night Fury would have wanted to come and sniff the item, but after the results of his last few visits at the forge, Gobber didn't allow Toothless inside his workshop anymore. And Toothless didn't dare to question that, it really hurt when the blacksmith hit him in the nose with his big hammer-hand.

Hiccup didn't know what to say, he was totally caught off-guard with such an item. "It sure looks intimidating, but why? What use could we have for helmets for dragons?"

Gobber looked around a bit nervously, like he wouldn't have been sure either. "Well, you'll never know, these might come in handy", he said a bit mysteriously, walking at his desk at the opposite side of the room. He collected some sheets of paper in one pile in half-careless manner and turned them upside down. "It's still experimental. Didn't you like experiments, eh? Anyways, I don't want to trouble you any longer."

"But – ", Hiccup tried.

Gobber almost pushed him out of the door. "It's nothing Hiccup, I see you're in hurry, I won't be offended, don't you worry." The door was slammed shut in front of Hiccup's nose.

Hiccup stared the wooden door for a moment. "Well, that was weird. Helmets for dragons… what you think about it bud?"

Toothless looked like he appreciated the idea.

"Guess I'll have to ask more about that later, now however I have to meet Gothi." Hiccup walked up the curvy road that leaded at the hill where the elder lived. He scratched Toothless behind the ear, causing the dragon to purr in enjoyment, and wondered about the incident at Gobber's house.

Suddenly a crackling sound fell from the sky and set the grass burning just one step ahead of Hiccup. A furious screech followed immediately, a black wing swung against his stomach, making him fall on his back in the dirt. The ground jolted when a massive creature hit against Toothless with full force of diving down the sky. Hiccup crawled away from the aggressive snarls as Toothless pushed the attacker off, sending it rolling off few meters.

Hiccup backed against a massive tree and looked at the fighting dragons. Toothless rose on his hind legs and flapped his wings, aiming to scare the other dragon to flee. The other dragon had lowered its body, spread wings out and jaws wide open, hissing at Toothless as it slowly backed off. It was a Deadly Nadder, especially brightly colored blue-orange one. The realization hit Hiccup. _Stormfly._

The Nadder snarled fiercely and rushed towards Toothless, who gave it a good whack to the head with his tail. Stormfly staggered sideways and made chirping sound. At that moment a flock of five Terrible Terrors joined the fight. They landed next to the Nadder and together the six dragons begun to surround the Night Fury.

Toothless snapped at the closest Terror, but it didn't even flinch. It had to be either really brave or really stupid.

At Stormfly's hiss the Terrors pounded on Toothless, and in a one wing beat the black dragon had grounded all five of them. Growling menacingly and eyes mere slits, the Night Fury charged on the Deadly Nadder.

Stormfly shrieked and trashed, but once Toothless got it pinned down, it wasn't going to get anywhere. Seeing their leader getting beaten, the Terrors quickly vanished from the scene.

Hiccup observed the Nadder; it made pathetic whines, and all the previous fury had left its features totally. Instead it appeared utterly confused, and Hiccup wasn't sure if the Night Fury that was still growling at its face had anything to do with that.

"Toothless", Hiccup said carefully, "I think you can let her go."

The black dragon glanced him briefly and turned once more to growl at the Nadder. Then he slowly stepped off and let the other dragon free. Hiccup hurried to Stormfly's side as it got back to its feet. The brightly-colored dragon was calm but somehow nervous. Nevertheless, it allowed Hiccup to scratch its scales behind the spikes in its neck. Toothless hovered all the time right behind him, eyeing the female dragon suspiciously. As Hiccup looked the Nadder to the eye, he saw his own questions mirrored there. _What had just happened?_

Chirping once at Hiccup, Stormfly turned around and headed back towards the center of the village, leaving one confused Viking boy and one concerned Night Fury standing behind.

It had been less than an hour since Hiccup had gotten up, and he had already managed to meet strangely behaving Gobber and getting attacked by his friend's dragon accompanied with some random Terrors.

An odd feeling was creeping upon him. Something just didn't feel right. Actually nothing felt right. Maybe it was just him and his lack of sleep, but still...

"Let's go bud", he said silently. Odin knows what terrors there were still waiting for him.

As they closed the elder's house, Hiccup noted that there was no smoke coming out from the chimney. He knocked at the door of the old house. It was situated at the edge of the village, and for that reason it hadn't been burned down for decades – quite a rarity in Berk. Hiccup waited but no one opened. Gothi had probably woken early and went outside.

"Great. What you think Toothless, should we wait here or go search for her at the village?"

The Night Fury pointed towards a nearby tree with his nose and made a rumbling sound.

"Alright, wait it is then." Hiccup sat down on the grass and leaned his back against the tree. Toothless circled around the tree two times and then lied down. Hiccup watched the clouds at the blue sky and slowly his eyelids got heavier and heavier…

_Hiccup ripped off his shirt and pressed it tightly against the shredded side of his best friend. Soon the green shirt darkened and turned red as the blood poured through the soaked shirt. "No…", Hiccup breathed. He looked the twisted world trough wet eyes and kept pressing the wounds, not willing to acknowledge that it was useless._

_Then a single word echoed almost violently on the scene, although it was as faint as leaves rustling in the wind._

"_Hiccup."_

_Hiccup froze in a position, listening carefully. Soon the word was repeated:_

"_Hiccup."_

_The voice was calming but also somehow alien._

"_Come to me Hiccup, you can't do anything but I can save him."_

_Slowly Hiccup stood up. Now, for the first time he was sure of where the sound was coming. As he turned to face that direction, the ashy fog suddenly cleared and revealed the side of a mountain with a huge crack in it. A faint red-orange glow was coming from the depths of the volcano. All of sudden Hiccup felt really nervous._

"_Are you – are you there?" He asked with such a silent voice that he wasn't sure if he had even said anything._

"_Hiccup, I'm waiting… Come to me…"_

_Hesitatingly Hiccup took a few steps towards the cave -_

A loud sound woke Hiccup up and he opened his eyes just to notice that Toothless was growling at him, sharp teeth revealed. Hiccup startled and hit the back of his head to the solid tree trunk as he tried to back off. Toothless looked at him like he was some evil monster.

"Toothless, what are you doing? It's me here!" Hiccup panicked.

Slowly the dragon calmed down and looked around like something had just escaped his grasp. Only after that Toothless moved so Hiccup could stand up.

"Toothless, what was that about?" Hiccup demanded, bewildered. Toothless looked away and it just made him more confused. "Oh nice, everyone is behaving weird, I'm losing my mind and now even you are acting like that!"

Toothless raised his gaze to meet Hiccup's but Hiccup couldn't read anything from the dragon's expression, only a small hint of something – fear?

Before he could ponder it more he noticed a thin trail of smoke flowing out of Gothi's smokestack. She had apparently returned while he was having a nap. Hiccup walked past Toothless and raised his hand to knock at the door. He really wished to find some answers soon.

* * *

**A/N: This begins to deviate from the old version here, I'm keeping the overall plot somewhat the same, but the events will get modified more or less heavily to suit me better. Updated 14th November 2011.**


	4. Chapter 3: In Trouble

**Chapter 3: In Trouble**

The door opened and Hiccup was looking at short, old woman. Gothi, the village's eldest was respected among the tribe for her knowledge of both herblore and history. She had been always kind towards Hiccup, even when no one else had been, and that was one more reason why Hiccup felt that he could ask advice from her.

"Oh, Hiccup. What a pleasurable surprise. Don't just stand there, come in." Gothi smiled and step aside to let Hiccup enter the house. Hiccup looked around in the small room. There was a round wooden table in the middle of the room with some stools around it. At the wall left from the front door was a fireplace with some wood happily burning in it. Next to the fireplace was a doorway to Gothi's bedroom.

Toothless tried to follow Hiccup inside but couldn't fit himself through the narrow doorway and Hiccup had to stop him before anything got broken. "Sorry bud, but you have to stay outside. This won't take too long."

The dragon looked reluctant to do so, but as there were no other options he sat down in front of the door, blocking the way in. He looked at Hiccup like he was saying 'I'm waiting' and turned his back to the boy.

"Oh right…" Hiccup turned to the elder who gestured him to sit down. He did as pleased and waited as Gothi added some wood to the fireplace.

"I believe you have something to ask", she stated. "You look troubled."

Hiccup pondered how to set his words. Gothi sat down on the other side of the table and waited patiently for him to open his mouth, not trying to hurry him or anything. "I – I have a problem", Hiccup started carefully. She nodded, encouraging him to continue. "I can't sleep anymore. I'm having dreams… nightmares." Hiccup feared he was sounding childish.

"Dreams are mysterious and powerful things, Hiccup. Having nightmares is not a case to be ashamed of, I hope you understand that." She observed Hiccup before asking: "What happens in the dreams?"

He hesitated a bit before telling: "I'm flying with Toothless… we are battling the Red Death again. But this time it goes different." Hiccup paused. It was surprisingly hard to say the rest. "We kill it, but Toothless – Toothless gets injured. Badly. I – I can't save him. And then I hear the voice calling me. It feels so realistic…" Hiccup's voice trembled and he noticed that his eyes were getting wet. He quickly looked away from the old woman, pretending to be suddenly interested of the view that opened from the only window in the room. Still he knew he couldn't deceive the elder.

"There's a voice calling you, you said? Could you elaborate a little, what it sounds like, what it says?

"Well", Hiccup managed to regain his composure, "it's kinda weird, it's like a faint whisper that I can barely hear, but at the same time it's like the speaker is shouting right at my ear. Also, it seems to come from everywhere like some odd echo, but I can still pinpoint its location. At least last time I could, but not ever before." Hiccup paused to see if the elder had any comments, but she just nodded Hiccup to continue. "As what the voice says; it wants me to come to it, whatever the speaker is. It states that I can't help Toothless, but it can. It can save Toothless."

Gothi took some time to collect her thoughts. "Hmmm… this voice. I don't have any idea what it might be, but I advise you to be very careful, as it sounds like this could have something to do with…" Gothi sighed in deep. "I shouldn't speak of this as I don't know anything about it, but this may have a connection to Dreamworld."

Hiccup raised his eyebrows. "Dreamworld?"

"Yes, the Plane of Dreams. A complex world beyond our minds. The seers claim that it's possible for the very essence of a human – a soul if you will – to enter that plane while asleep. Accidentally or on purpose."

Hiccup was getting confused soon. "But do you mean that in my nightmares I'm at this – this Dreamplane? What does it mean? What it has to do with the Red Death?"

Gothi sighed in deep. "Hiccup, you have to understand that I don't know much of this subject. I don't know if dragons can enter the plane of dreams, more so dead ones. Long time ago I learned from one of the Wise about the existence of the Dreamworld, but I didn't really get any details.

"The Wise?"

"The Wise are a tribe of Vikings living on an island that is South from here. They're known for their powerful seers, and that their tribe has an unusually normal name for Vikings."

"I suppose I could make a visit there?" Hiccup asked hopefully.

Gothi smiled sadly. "I'm afraid they don't like to share their information."

"But you said that you got your knowledge of Dreamworld from them!"

"Yes", Gothi gave a laugh, "By eavesdropping two of their travelling seers at a campfire."

Hiccup was stunned. "But… but…"

"I'm sorry Hiccup, but there's nothing I can do to help. Unless you want to try to find out if something is mentioned in the ancient tales", Gothi said.

It felt unlikely that there would be anything about his nightmares in the old legends, the Vikings campfire stories, but Hiccup wanted to give it a chance. "Sure."

Hiccup waited as Gothi disappeared in her room and some moments later she returned carrying some heavy object. "This is the book of Legends", Gothi presented an old, dusty book. "Every story and tale during countless generations has been recorded in this book, Hiccup. I hope this helps you."

Hiccup stood up and took the book, swaying a bit under its weight. "Thanks, elder." Hiccup said. "I hope you don't mind if I go read it outside?"

"No, no, go ahead. Just please keep the book in good condition."

"I will take good care of it, thanks again", Hiccup bowed and left the house.

Toothless greeted Hiccup eagerly, black tail swinging from side to side. The faithful guard had been apparently bored to death. Toothless gave a curious look at the item Hiccup was carrying now.

"Wonder what this is, bud? It's something that will help us, I hope."

Toothless snorted and rolled his eyes, like the dragon couldn't understand what Hiccup saw in that dusty brick-thingy.

The couple searched for a nice place and settled to a shadow of large pine. As Hiccup sat down, Toothless curled around him (and at the same time, the tree).

"Okay, let's see what's inside, shall we?" Hiccup opened the book and began to read. Toothless yawned and laid his head on his forelegs, eyeing Hiccup's reading lazily.

Just as he had though, Hiccup soon found out that it would not be an easy search; there were countless tales of great heroes, glorious battles, tragic events, skilled dragon slayers…

Hours passed slowly and Hiccup became more confident every minute that there would be nothing useful in the book. _The legend of Gunnar, The tale of Dagger-mouths, The story of Odin's chosen warrior._ Hiccup sighed. Nothing seemed to be even slightly related to the Plane of Dreams or the Red Death, not to mention even nightmares… He continued reading, totally bored.

_The myth of Ancient Dragons._

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. Finally something that's not about Viking heroes, perhaps?

_Across the seas, from the brave men who had had the courage to settle at the distant islands, have came unsettling messages of huge and violent dragons unlike any other they have seen before. In the messages are told that dragons of sea and fire, dragons of the size of a hill have been sighted. Most concerning is that it appears that these hulking beasts, which apparently are hostile to each other, are being protected by swarms and swarms of minor dragons._

Just like the Red Death, Hiccup thought, getting excited. Maybe this book wasn't so worthless after all.

_It is possible that these dragon sovereigns, as some of the men call them, have some kind of control over their kind. Some seers from the tribe of the Wise were called to examine the situation, and after delicate observation the seers confirmed that it was indeed possible that some sort of control existed. According to the seers, it seemed most likely that the sovereigns…_

Hiccup was distracted when he was suddenly wrapped in a black wing. He winced as the sudden event made him drop the book. There was a screech, a thud and the sound of crackling fire, and then the wing was lifted.

First he noticed Snotlout running past him, yelling for Fireworm. "No, Fireworm! Stop! Come back, you stupid lizard!"

Then he turned his head and saw the thing that had bumped into them; a fiery red Monstrous Nightmare that had set herself on fire. So it appeared that Snotlout had once again lost control of the somewhat misbehaving dragon. For some reason Hiccup was not surprised at all. Toothless snarled at the couple that was running away, one chasing the other.

Then, to his great shock, he smelled smoke, just to notice that the Book of Legends was on fire. "Oh no." His eyes went round for the few seconds it took from him to get himself to react. Quickly he removed his fur coat and lashed the flames with it.

Hiccup managed to put out the flames. He kneeled in front of the charred remains of the book. The pages had been burned almost completely, and now there were only some separate words here and there, the rest had been turned into ashes.

_Why_ it is always me, Hiccup wondered desperately. The gods must really hate him. Not only did he lost the only trail he had, but also managed to destroy an invaluable piece of his tribe's history. It was so typical for him, always in trouble. How could he ever face Gothi again?

Toothless nudged his side and crooned. It made him feel better, a bit, and Hiccup was thankful to his friend. He had perhaps lost one key to the mystery of his dream, but there had to be others. He wouldn't give up just yet. And he'd make up an explanation for Gothi.

* * *

He shifted His weight in the warmth of the earth, disrupting the steady flow of the hot matter. He kept his eyes closed for they were of no use here. Nothing meant anything here. Or used to not mean. Without His siblings He would have lost His mind in this eternal loneliness a long time ago, like it had been meant. Now He enjoyed just the pure feel of _feeling_, being complete once again.

The cursed rings burned against his hide like they used to, but still they couldn't harm him, they couldn't even make him feel pain. Nothing could. Not by then, and not by now.

For too long had He been cut from those who belonged to Him… those who _were_ Him. But the torment had ended. He could once again feel. He could once again say that He was alive. He could sense all that was Him. And He was **Unity**.

He was the smallest of Terrors playing in the dirt…

He was the fiercest of Nightmares flying high at the sky…

He was the most beautiful of Nadders showing off to each other…

Soon He would also be the skinny half-legged human boy that changed His death… and then… then He could finally return home.

* * *

**A/N: Changed the conversation to be more fitting/no useless info. Next chapter will feature heavy changes. Updated 5th december. (2011)**


	5. Chapter 4: Target

**A/N: Time for a _huge_ chapter (on my scale, that is), and I'm extremely pleased how this turned out. However, at this point I have to warn that this is going to be pretty dark story, and this chapter already has a rather nasty scene. You have been warned.**

**On a lighter note, I'd like to thank my reviewers, especially Victoria62015 for reviewing almost every chapter I have written (in _FR_, too). Thanks :)**

**DISCLAIMER: Look earlier chapters. This is identical to those.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Target**

After a quick lunch Hiccup headed towards Ingerman's house. As Toothless wandered off to the docks to steal some fish (for some reason, he preferred his fish this way) Hiccup decided to use the time to go visit Fishlegs as he had asked yesterday. Another reason was that Toothless had steeply refused to take him to the dragon island. Hiccup needed something else to think about to ease his frustration.

He had changed the fur coat to his riding vest, but now it seemed useless. It was almost impossible to make Toothless to change his mind. Hiccup had also taken his sword with him. He had made it himself after realizing that he had some skills in sword fight after all. He had embedded an image of a Night Fury in the blade and named the sword as Tooth. It was a fitting name, and a bit ironical. Now he had both Tooth and Toothless.

As he arrived at the Ingerman's house, he noticed that the window of Fishleg's room was open and there was going a heated conversation inside. Hiccup sneaked closer to the window. The voices were familiar. _Astrid._ _And Tuffnut. Ruffnut, too. And Fishlegs. What's going on?_

Hiccup placed his ear as close to the opened window as he dared.

"…mean you're not ready! We are supposed to leave _tomorrow_, for Thor's sake!" Astrid yelled at someone, and judging by the mumbling noises that someone was Fishlegs.

"Yea", Tuffnut added, "_He_ will rise soon."

"And you haven't even packed?" Ruffnut questioned.

"It's not some leisure stroll, Fishlegs. It's war. I thought _He_ instructed us all clearly enough!" Astrid raged.

_War? _Hiccup had no idea what they were talking about, but it certainly didn't sound good. Then he remembered the helmets and Gobber's words. Something major was going on, and for some reason no one had told anything about it to him.

"What we have here, a spy?" A voice startled him, and he turned around only to see a cold-faced Snotlout standing very close to him.

"Uh – sorry, I didn't mean…" Hiccup started but Snotlout interrupted him by stepping closer so he had to back off against the wall.

"How long you have listened there?" Snotlout asked.

"I – I just came. I wasn't going…"

"That was not meant for your ears." Snotlout noted bluntly. "Unfortunately there's only one way out of this troublesome situation", he said, eyes gleaming dangerously as he drew out his sword.

Hiccup hoped that his cousin would burst in laughter and say it was all just a joke. Too bad that it didn't look plausible. He turned away from his cousin and begun to run. It took few seconds before he heard Snotlout's steps after him.

Hiccup ran across the grass field towards the village, million thoughts zipping around in his mind. Only things he were sure of that Snotlout was dead serious and he had to run for his life. Everything else, including what he had just heard and why he was in this situation, was incomprehensible.

Not like he had any chances to escape with this leg of his. Soon he tumbled over to a root and thus losing any hopes of running off, he backed against the tree to which the root belong to. As his last hope he unsheathed Tooth. Snotlout stopped just out of reach and laughed. "Are you serious?"

At the same time Astrid, Tuffnut, Ruffnut and Fishlegs arrived behind Snotlout, each wielding a weapon and looking like they were going to kill. And that was what they probably were going to do. Hiccup gulped. This was so not going to happen. Not even in his nightmares, yet in a real life.

"Come on Hiccup, drop your weapon and make this easy", Snotlout teased, "There are five of us, and you are all alone."

Hiccup felt the calming coldness of a scale against his chest, hanging from a string around his neck. That feeling made him say what he knew to be true: "No. I'm never alone." He stared at his cousin's cold eyes. "I have TOOTHLESS!" Yelling the last word Hiccup dove for cover as the ground between him and the other teens turned into smoldering crater. Almost like a living shadow the black dragon landed on the exact spot of the hit and sent some dirt flying as it took hold of the ground with its sharp claws.

"Toothless… perfect timing", Hiccup said, tears of joy forming in the corners of his eyes. The dragon grinned and hurried Hiccup to hop on. The other teens were already getting back on their feet after being knocked down by the powerful blast.

Hiccup mounted Toothless quickly, his heart racing fast as Toothless beat his wings hard to gain altitude. He felt empty inside; he had just lost his home. Hiccup was sure he couldn't return back. Where could he go? More importantly, where would he _want_ to go? The answer was actually pretty simple. He hoped that Toothless would understand it too.

Looking down at Berk, Hiccup saw a group of black spots rising from the village. As the spots came closer they turned into multicolored spots and then… "Toothless, we got company!" The other dragons that were apparently pursuing them were closing in fast. Hiccup could make out at least five Nadders, three Gronckles, four Changewings, two Nightmares and one Zippleback. Each of them carried a Viking on their back (the Zippleback carried two), including his friends.

Toothless glanced Hiccup with a smirk. If the Night Fury was really proud of something, it was his ability to fly faster, higher, longer, stealthier and generally just better than any other dragon. As the pursuers were approaching from below, Hiccup knew exactly what Toothless had in mind. At the same time as he shifted a gear in the artificial tail Toothless spread his wings to brake and then performed a quick 180 degree turn, pulling his wings close to the body.

The Vikings and dragons screamed and their formation broke up as it was pierced by a black arrow. With an amazing speed Toothless dove towards the ocean, leaving other dragons far behind. Toothless straightened the dive just when they were about to hit the water, and flied towards the nearest rock formation that was towering high from the sea. The sea was full of similar islands in the waters close to Berk.

As they closed the tower-like rock, Hiccup noted that two Nadders were getting too close from above and prepared to breathe fire. He didn't have to say to Toothless what he was going to do, the dragon sensed it already and made a barrel roll at the same time as a click indicated that a gear had been shifted in the tail. The Nadder's fire missed them by a lot. The same worked other way around, Hiccup just _sensed_ if Toothless was going to do some maneuver and shifted gear without slowing down the dragon at all. Almost like they had minds linked, in the air they worked as a single unit.

Toothless flied around the rock and left the Nadders behind, only to be faced by a Changewing. Without hesitation he blasted the dragon along with its rider out of the sky. Hiccup felt rather shocked as he had recognized the Viking rider, but there was no time for remorse now, they were running for their lives after all. At least that was what he assured to himself.

"Toothless, we can't just escape and let them follow us. It would be of no use. Let's make them a little distracted first and then flee." Toothless grunted and begun to take altitude.

As soon as Hiccup saw that there was a dragon coming after them, Toothless turned around and with the eerie trademark noise of a Night Fury the Gronckle and its rider met their fate.

They continued zipping around the pursuers, moving faster than the villagers could react, releasing a blast of bright blue fire every now and then.

The tactic was working, as the chasers, even Snotlout, begun to shout about black devil to each other and wanted to turn back.

"Alright bud, just one more dive should do it. Then we're off from here."

Suddenly a hulking figure appeared in front of them. Toothless screeched and made a panic spin-dive. Hiccup managed to shift gears in time, but lost his grip and only the safety strap prevented him from falling off.

The sticky, gross fire of the Skrill just missed them. Or so Hiccup thought, until he felt a burning sensation in his right hand. Hiccup yelled in agony as his little and ring -fingers were partly covered in the burning gel that Skrills used as their weapon. He covered his right hand in his shirt to put out the flames.

That distracted him so that he shifted the gears wrong and caused Toothless to lose balance and fall, spinning and shrieking. "Oh no", Hiccup stated and caught the saddle's handholds with both hands to shift in the right gear. He managed to do that, and Toothless quickly stabilized the flight, but the now exposed hand burst in flames again. "Aaaaaarrghhhh!" Hiccup shouted and covered the hand in the shirt again.

His eyes were getting wet from the pain. He couldn't fly like this; they'd crash sooner or later, especially with Igniter after them. He tried to wipe the gel off, but he knew that it was too sticky to be removed completely that way. There was only two ways to get out of this. First option was to let it burn and stand the pain, and the second was to let it burn and not feel _that_ pain. He was certain that he couldn't take the first, leaving the second one as the only option.

Toothless flied steadily around the coastline of Berk, so that Hiccup could keep up with the necessary gear shifts while dealing with his hand, but also kept a distance to the Skrill and those of the other pursuers that still dared to continue the chase. Hiccup knew that Toothless wanted to do more to help, but there was no way that anyone could help him out of this. Gritting teeth Hiccup grabbed his knife from the belt. _Why me, out of all people?_ He wondered desperately. He always felt weak after getting even a minor wound, and if he'd black out now, like he expected he would, he and Toothless would be dead for sure.

It was a do or die situation, so Hiccup gathered what courage he had and placed his hand, still covered in the shirt, against the hardest part of the saddle. He had just one try, if he'd fail it he just couldn't hit again. He placed the blade against the two fingers. His precious fingers. "Aahh, I can't do this bud, I can't…" Toothless glanced at him, deep worry reflecting from his green eyes.

Hiccup breathed in slowly and closed his eyes. _I must do this. For Toothless._ He hesitated briefly before pressing the knife down with all his strength. The pain jolted up his body, consuming everything, and he doubled over his crippled hand, letting the knife fall together with the flaming fingers.

A gentle touch of his sleeve to the finger-stumps was like he had been hit with a hammer, and the pain pulsated shockingly up to his brains. "Toothless", Hiccup whispered, "head towards the nest. Please." Toothless looked at him and crooned, and then he changed direction away from Berk.

"Thanks…" Now he had only to remain conscious. And shift gears. He could do that, right? Actually, it didn't matter anymore what he could do. There was only what he _had_ to do. Right now he _had_ to stay awake, to stay alive. Reach his target. Everything else could be worried later. That was what he had to do.

* * *

Toothless descended below the massive pillar of smoke rising from the volcano, spread over distance by wind. It was pretty dark under the curtains of smoke, and there was also fog rising from the sea, but Hiccup could still recognize the shore where the Vikings led by his father had made a landing.

The long flight had made him feel a bit better. He had ripped off a part of his shirt and made it into a bandage around the right hand. It was now colored red and soaked by the blood, but it had to do for now. What was really troubling was that if _anything_ touched the cut fingers, he was doubling over from the pain. He had just to be extremely careful and bear with it. At least there were no followers to worry about.

They landed softly on the bland, quiet shore. Well, not so bland; there were clear signs of a battle that had been fought there some months ago. Splinters of wood from crushed catapults and sharp poles, wrecked ships at the shallow waters and rocks scorched black by dragon fire were proof of the day when the nightmares begun. Most notable feature left of said battle was a huge crater formed by an exploding giant-dragon and the foul remains of said beast.

The thing that interested Hiccup most, though, was the crack made in the mountainside by the Red Death. From there opened a large tunnel to the insides of the volcano. Something red glowed in the depths of the mountain. He felt an urge to go inside the ominous cave.

Toothless looked cautious but walked towards the cave as Hiccup pleased. The smell that was floating in the air was pretty horrible and made the already weak-feeling Hiccup wanting to throw up. He pressed his left hand sleeve against his nose and tried to concentrate on his target: the cave. The pulsating pain from the cut fingers made it hard to concentrate on anything, though, but Hiccup just gritted his teeth and urged Toothless to move faster.

As they closed in on the crack in the side of the volcano, Hiccup started to feel different. It was like the air was filled with whispers, but he still couldn't hear anything besides Toothless' claws snapping against the rocky ground.

That was until they were at the mouth of the tunnel, where Toothless suddenly stopped. The Night Fury was like it had seen a whole pile of eels just in front of his nose. Hiccup jumped down from the saddle like if he had been struck by lightning. He had felt something… feelings that were not his; whispers of anger, hatred, vengeance. Whispers of great power, and a pressing feeling to move onwards, into the mountain.

Hiccup took a few quick steps forward and begun to climb over the rubble formed at the entrance by Red Death's rather violent exit from her den. The external feelings were giving him new strength and he didn't spare a single thought to his crippled hand. As he managed to get on the first boulder and looked for a way to get on a second one, a shriek from behind stopped him.

He tilted his head to look behind while climbing on top of the pile of rubble, only to see his dragon looking at him with wide, frightened eyes with slit pupils. The Night Fury shook his head and moaned.

"Toothless, come on! I don't care if it looks scary; I need to solve this now!" Hiccup scowled at the dragon. He was tired, scared and after everything that happened in the village he didn't want any kind of delays. Even if he'd hurt Toothless' feelings. "You either come with me or stay here, but I'm going there anyways." He reached the top of the blockade at the same time as he said the words.

Hiccup waited a moment, hoping that his friend – his last and best friend – would come with him, but Toothless just looked at him with begging eyes. Hiccup felt bad to say the least, but nothing was enough to break the hold that the depths of the tunnel had on him and so he begun to descend to the other side. Maybe he was going in the belly of the beast, but this was what he wanted most right now. The _only_ thing that he wanted right now. Weird. Hiccup could have sworn that he had had other things in his mind also, but they had all been cleared now. It was just  
him and the tunnel left.

At the same time as he reached the cave floor, he heard some loose rocks falling off of the rubble blockade. Before he had time to turn around to have a look, a black figure swooshed over him and landed a small distance ahead of him. The Night Fury turned to face him, blending in the darkness of the cave so well that the gleaming green eyes were only visible detail telling that there was something other than rocks there.

Toothless stared at Hiccup, gesturing him to turn around, in a very demanding manner. "Get out of my way!" Hiccup snarled with a suddenly hardened voice. Toothless shook his head and rumbled. As the situation led to nowhere, Toothless crouched and narrowed his eyes. He was preparing to leap.

"Toothless, I'm warning you. I can't allow that, don't you understand?" Hiccup put his left hand to the handle of Tooth. The pupils of Toothless' eyes turned into slits. "Everyone has turned against me – don't you do the same!" A metallic sound rang in their ears for a second as Hiccup unsheathed Tooth and pointed it towards the black dragon.

Toothless shifted his gaze from Hiccup to Tooth and back to Hiccup's cold face. He shook his head with disbelief, gave one last look of indescribable sadness to the teen and then run past him, jumped over the pile of rocks and disappeared in the darkness.

Hiccup stood there, frozen in the position of threatening empty space with his sword. His eyes were empty and didn't really look anywhere. Then, slowly, he collapsed on his knees. He let his sword to drop on ground and buried his face in his hands. "What I have done…? What I thought I was doing…?" Hiccup muttered to himself. Toothless had gone; he had banished his most faithful friend. _Now_ he was truly alone. And for what, exactly?

Hiccup took a deep breath. The whispers were getting stronger now when the worst shock had subsided. He groped his neck under the shirt until he caught the black scale tied with a string around his neck. He held it in front of his face and sighed. He had made a kind of an amulet out of a single Toothless' scale a while ago. When everything was still sensible. _I will make up this for you, after I have dealt with this first. I swear that._

He stood up and hid the scale back to its place under his shirt. The voices wanted him to continue further, and he had no reason or will to resist them. He walked, or in few cases, climbed, in the dark, uneven grounds of the tunnel to the fiery heart of the mountain. It was dead silent; the dragons inhabiting the island had left after the death of the Red Death. That bothered Hiccup, as he would have thought that they would live now there happily without the parasite around, but well, just one more mystery to be solved. Maybe.

Soon the tunnel split in two. The tunnel to the right was larger and apparently leaded to the Red Death's chamber, but the left one was the one that attracted Hiccup. It was curving steep to the left, and a strong red-orange glow painted the walls of the curve. The temperature was rising as he got closer to the curve.

Troublesomely he crossed the difficult ground and made it there. The view was breathtaking: behind the curve opened a _huge_ chamber with a whole lake of magma in the middle. Hiccup proceeded to walk cautiously onwards, wondering what could have possibly called him there. There was nothing but volcanic rock and magma. Nevertheless he wanted to take a better look at the glowing red lake.

Hiccup walked at the edge. He was sweating as the hot air rose up from the pool of magma. It was almost unrealistic; the place had such an eerie feeling in it. The whole cave bathed in a faint red light glowing from the pool and only sounds were formed by the bubbling liquid. Then he noticed a ledge that was arching a good ten meters over the lake and half walked, half climbed there, to get a better view of the lake.

_Hiccup!_ A strong voice echoed from the ceiling and walls. No, actually Hiccup was sure he was hearing it _inside_ his head. Not like the whispers in the tunnel, no, this voice was certainly real. And familiar. It was the voice from his nightmares.

Hiccup looked around alerted but didn't see anything that could have talked. It went all silent again until the magma began to surge in the middle of the pool and a huge, elongated head emerged from the depths.

The head was covered in rather large, red scales, like was also the long neck to which the head was attached to. The eyes were located in the rear of the skull like a Monstrous Nightmare's, and a pair of some flexible, thin things grew out of the head behind them. As the creature slowly opened its mouth to spat out some of the liquid rock it had accidentally swallowed or something, Hiccup noticed to his horror that it had three-parted jaws, each having two rows of razor-sharp teeth. He was sure that he saw multiple rope-like tongues in the mouth before the creature shut it. It opened its eyes and stared Hiccup with the fiery orange eyes. Hiccup saw a terrifying alien intelligence shining from them.

Ever so slowly its jaws turned into some kind of crooked smile. _So you came to me._

_

* * *

_

**Yeah, I took the look of the creature in the end from the one dragon seen in the dragon manual. Check from there if my description isn't clear enough (check the detail, but don't look too closely on the overall view of it XD).**

**Next time, some answers coming. Reviews are appreciated as always. -TF-**


	6. Chapter 5: Iron Fist

**A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to make, but the good news is that I can make weekly updates again, so there won't be so long silent periods anymore :)**

**Another thing: thanks for all the ppl who have reviewed/favourited this story, it really makes me happy :D Actually, I have decided to make this a little bit longer than originally designed, thanks to favouriters again.**

**DISCLAIMER: HTTYD just doesn't happen to be mine.**

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**Chapter 5: Iron Fist**

Hiccup was so dumbfounded by the sight of the mighty, _talking_ beast in the middle of the pool that he could do nothing but stare it. Trails of smoke were rising from the large nostrils and some lava was dripping down from the scales so bright red and orange that it gave the impression that the whole creature was burning.

As they observed each other silently, Hiccup noticed a strong ring around its neck and a chain leading down to the magma – all made of what seemed to be liquid gold, as crazy as it sounded. All around the edges of the pool were similar golden chains rising up from the magma, firmly fixed in the walls of the cave.

The creature noticed what Hiccup was looking at and broke the silence. _Fascinating, isn't it?_ It snorted bitterly.

"Who – What are you?" Hiccup asked, pondering hard if he should just run away as fast as he could. But, his curiosity was taking over, and for some reason he was getting the feeling that that creature wouldn't hurt him.

_Good question, boy_, the voice boomed in Hiccup's mind. _I am ancient being, almost as old as these rocks around us._ The words being said, images of world long gone flashed in Hiccup's eyes. He gulped as he realized that they were its memories.

_At those times the gods were eager on competing each other in various things, most being things you can hardly even imagine. At one point the subject was who creates the mightiest dragon. I was created by Loki_, the dragon told and its eyes gleamed dangerously. _For a while we lived happily with our masters in Asgard._ Hiccup felt a rush of joy and happy feelings over him as the dragon recalled the times.

_However, it was too good to last. Too soon the gods changed the subject of their competitions,_ it said, voice getting colder with every word. _We were thrown out like some used trash!_ Any warmth Hiccup had felt vanished as hatred and rage flooded him overwhelmingly.

The dragon took a break to calm down a bit before continuing: _But that was only the beginning. The others didn't take the banishment too hard. They began to suppress the lesser dragons of this world into their minions, using their primitive methods of forcing and threatening to control them. I never lowered myself into that. They called themselves as "Overlords" and battled each other in lust for power. To me, that was waste of time. I never attended to the fighting._

_No, although I had followers of my own, my goal was different. I had decided to get back to Asgard, back to home. By force if necessary. So I waited until most of my kind had died until I gathered my followers and headed to Asgard. The gods didn't take that too kindly_, the dragon laughed.

_It was a really massive battle. All the gods were there opposing me, with valkyries, giants and other kind of mystical creatures on their side. The sky was scorched with the fire of my dragon army and the thunder of Thor. It was going all along the plan. My scales are impenetrable; I am invincible. Not even Thor was able to harm me._

_I was winning, Hiccup. I was getting home. That was, until… _the recent self-satisfaction that was radiating from the dragon changed into wrath. _…Until I was betrayed! The last of the Overlords joined the battle in the favor of the gods. My followers were defeated, and I was imprisoned in this forsaken volcano!_

_Thor created these golden chains to hold me in this hot lake, and the one who betrayed me was assigned to guard me. On top of that, Odin cursed me. He commanded that death would come upon me at the moment I'm caught of a lie. He wanted to assure that I'm not tricking anyone to set me free. Hah. Like I was ever going to have even a chance for that._

_That was when you stepped in. After centuries of hibernating under the volcano, I woke up in the feeling that something had changed. Red Death had died. My senses were not contained anymore. I was able to feel the world once again._

_So, Hiccup, do you think the gods did the right thing? Judging me to spend an eternity here? My ways were a bit harsh, I admit it, but I just wanted to get back home. Is that wrong?_

When Hiccup hesitated, the dragon continued.

_Hiccup, will you set me free?_ The dragon looked miserable, but insidehe was smiling. He had caught the fish in the net, and the Night Fury was gone; there was only one possible answer now.

Hiccup pondered hard. If the creature had really been imprisoned by gods, then he shouldn't mess with that. On the other hand, it truly sounded like it was being honest to him, and in that case he had to help it. It had said it couldn't lie. Hiccup was feeling pity for it, and besides he _had_ to do something, if only to forget his problems.

"I will release you", Hiccup said firmly. He took the few steps that were separating him from the nearest chain holding the creature. He was pretty sure that he could never break the very impervious-looking metallic rings, but he had to try. So Hiccup raised Tooth high above his head and brought it down with all his strength.

A loud clang boomed in the cavern as the steel of the blade connected with the liquid gold of the chain. Hiccup was thrown several meters backwards by a burst of energy released by the hit. He yelped as the pointy volcanic rocks shredded the back of his shirt and made some nasty wounds in his skin. Hiccup pulled himself up in a sitting position with his hands. As he had suspected, there was not even a scratch on the chain. At least his sword was still in good condition. But what surprised him was that the dragon was now grinning like mad. In an unsettling, disturbing way.

It let out a roar so horrible that Hiccup feared his heart might fail. Eyes gleaming it thundered to the skies, unseen to the cave: _He is willing to set me free! The hero who slayed Red Death wants to release me! I DEMAND YOU TO STAND BEHIND YOUR WORDS!_

It was like a thunderstorm had entered the cave, the noise was so unbearable. The sounds stopped as suddenly as they had started and it was dead quiet. And then – the solid liquid gold chains weren't solid anymore. Soon all that was left of them were some cooling puddles of gold on the rocks.

For a moment Hiccup was happy. He had definitely done the right thing. The creature was free; the gods had broken the chain, so he didn't do anything wrong.

The dragon turned its attention to Hiccup: _After centuries of wait, I can finally leave this lake – my prison – and I want to thank you for it._ It swam towards him, still just a head above the surface.

Hiccup got on his feet and moved some distance away from the lake to give it some space to rise from the magma. He couldn't help but feel a little unsecure as claws as long as he was took a hold of the edge of the pool and pulled a heavy body up from the lake.

That little unsecure feeling was nothing compared to the wild fear he felt when he saw what kind of creature – dragon – he really had saved. The slender body was blood red in color, with some fiery red and orange traits mixed in. It had four powerful legs with five almost two-meter long claws in each. The hard scales of the dragon glittered as magma dripped down the body on the ground. A pair of apparently large, fly-able wings was folded against the body, and a row of incredibly sharp spikes run down the spine from the necks to the tail. And that right there was what bothered Hiccup: it didn't have just one or two, or even three, but _four _heads.

Each of the heads were looking similar with the exception that they had differently colored eyes, plus one head with malicious red eyes had a kind of a scar running across its upper jaw.

_Hiccup, say hello to my brothers. Here's Chaos,_ the first head presented the lefternmost head with fiery red eyes and a scar – more like a scratch on the scales actually – running across its upper jaw. _Destruction_, a head with seaweed-green eyes hissed at Hiccup as its name was said. _And Misery_, the last, yellow-eyed head was presented.

_My name is Unity. Together we are the _Ultimate_ Overlord_, Unity announced._ Fear us!_

And Hiccup feared. He tried to back off, run away from the monstrosity so quickly that he lost his balance and fell face-first on the rough rocks.

"B-b-but. No. You-you lied to me!" Hiccup mumbled as he rolled on his back, in as loud voice as he could produce at the moment. Which meant it was barely a whisper.

Unity's expression changed into very aggressive one, his eyes were burning and he lowered his head just above Hiccup. The other heads were snapping in anger. Hiccup could feel the hot, dry breath of the dragon all over him.

_Never, ever accuse me of lying!_ Unity erupted. _I NEVER lie!_

Trying not to tremble so violently, Hiccup asked: "How about that you said you wasn't one of the Overlords? That you thought their acts were primitive?"

Unity chuckled abruptly. _It wasn't a lie. I never thought to be one of them, as I knew that I was far more powerful than any of them. Perhaps not physically, but I have… other abilities. As what comes to their methods of control; of course they were primitive. My own methods were, and still are, far more superior to anything else._

Hiccup had a _very_ bad feeling that he wasn't going to like where this was leading. But he had to know. "What is it, then? Your great method?"

Unity's smile was now something one could call twisted. _You didn't guess already? I am the lord of mind, Hiccup. Dreamplane is my tool._

He had guessed something like that already. "But what you actually do? Except for creating nightmares."

_Hahaha… You're right, I can create dreams. _Unity laughed mischievously. _By using dreamworld, I can access any creatures mind. Let it be a dragon, a human, a fly, no matter to me. Then I bend it, fill it with my will, and ultimately bind its soul to mine so tightly that nothing can separate us anymore. Not even death. That means my followers are absolutely loyal and never complain! Bwahaha._

Hiccup was shaking. So that was happening to him. He had no idea how to protect his mind from that monster, or if it was even possible. He had to keep it talking, until he could figure out a way out of this. "Then what about Toothless?"

Unity snorted. _What about that critter?_

"You said in the dream that you would save him if I come to you. If that wasn't a lie, then how do you explain it?"

_Oh, that was really clever from me; I have to give some credit to me. You see, if you hadn't come to me, I would have had to kill him. So I spared him when you came to me. Sparing is saving, isn't it?_

Hiccup gritted his teeth. That dragon had totally messed up his life with its manipulation. "Why! Why you wanted to get rid of him?" What threat he poses to you?"

Unity's expression darkened a bit. _More that you can imagine. Without that nuisance I could have just taken you over and command here. Without it I wouldn't have had to control a whole village. Have you any idea how hard that was in this weakened state of mine! And why, you ask? Because he is a Night Fury! _Unity said the last part with great despise.

_I suppose you don't have a clue what a Night Fury really is…_

"A rare dragon breed?" Hiccup tried carefully, regretting his words immediately. Unity stared at him like he was some kind of annoying, idiotic bug. And that was probably what he thought, too.

_Yes. But originally Night Furies were a weapon. A weapon created against me, by Thor and Hel. You see, Night Furies have the irritating ability of being immune to my control, and also partially protecting those near them. Even after all these years, the Night Furies still have that ability. From time to time, Toothless sensed my presence and protected you. But now it doesn't matter anymore._

"So…" Hiccup tried to process the whole thing in his head, "I did you a favor when I… when Toothless… when I sent him away."

_Bravo. As my presence here is a lot stronger than it is in Berk, I was able to affect your feelings just enough to make you get rid of that pest. After that moment, I have had full access on your mind. It's funny to watch as you try to think a way out of this. There's no escape from this, Hiccup. I could make you sit on that spot for the rest of your life if I'd like to._

"If you have this 'control' over me, then why am I still thinking?" Hiccup questioned and stood up, getting hurt from lying on the uneven, hard ground.

_Ah, but of course you are still thinking. I can't make you stop thinking, just control what and how you think. Trust me, you won't even notice it,_ Unity smirked, reddish glow of the magma behind him casting shadows on his face.

"But that's-"

_Enough talking! I am finally free, free to return to Asgard. I need an army first, though. And a leader for the army, while I'm gathering strength. Luckily I just happen to have a suitable volunteer for the job._

"You're meaning me, are you", Hiccup noted resignedly. "Why me? I can do nothing useful in a battle, especially not leading an army."

Unity looked amused. _You forget how you coordinated the battle against the Red Death. You are creative and adapting. I know you'll be great strategist, Hiccup. Especially when fighting on dragons._

Hiccup thought about it. It was true. But still, he wasn't sure if he'd able to bring down the vengeance on those who oppose his Master – wait, what?

_Don't worry about that. Now, _Commander_ Hiccup, I should introduce you to your army. But first, you need a new dragon. Luckily enough, I happen to have a worthy dragon for the role._ The way how Unity and _all_ his brothers smiled indicated that it would probably be the most horrifying dragon  
Hiccup had ever seen.

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**Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I didn't want to prolong the already delayed update anymore.**

**Until next chapter**

** -TF-**


	7. Chapter 6: Prepare For Battle

**A/N: Uhhh... last time I promised weekly updates and then it takes over month for one short chapter... I'M SORRY! I have an excuse though. I happened to see Wall-E for the first time and got blown away totally. ****Just now I can think about HTTYD again, and so I took the time to finally update. Sorry again.**

**Special thanks to the favouriters and especially reviewers, this could have took longer without the motivation I gained from you :)**

**This story is now about halfway there, and I'm going to finish this. Won't promise any update dates anymore though, just know it will be done.**

**DISCLAIMER: HTTYD is not mine. Won't be ever.**

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**Chapter 6: Prepare For Battle  
**

_Watch out_, Unity warned just before Chaos, Destruction and Misery opened their mouths and revealed an ominous glow rising up their throats.

Hiccup ducked just in time to avoid the searing flow of fire. The flames burned through the solid wall with ease, making molten rock pour down from the wall.

The three heads of the Overlord coordinated their fires like giant knifes and cut a huge chunk of heated rock out of the wall, and then proceeded to heat the chunk until it was nothing but a pond of lava. But, there seemed to be something else, too. Something… white.

_My most loyal follower will now be your faithful servant. Hiccup, may I present you: Deathslinger!_

As the name rang in Hiccup's mind, a hulking skeleton rose amidst the molten rocks. A skeletal dragon shook itself to get rid of the lava dripping down its bones. Its massive skull was over three meters above the ground; it was slightly larger than Skrills were. The empty eyesockets stared Hiccup like no living creature could. It was extremely spooky.

Still, Hiccup wasn't afraid, just curious. Probably because of Unity's doings, but Hiccup didn't care. He just wanted to observe that most unusual creature.

It was like no other dragon he had seen before. The skull was rather short compared to its size, but judging by how massive it was, it had enormous jaw strength. Or had had when it was still alive. Hiccup had no idea how an undead dragon would be able to bite without any muscles to move the jaws. But as it was apparently very able to move, it could probably bite just as well.

On top of the skull were two lines of small spikes (being 'small' is relative, they were long enough to pierce trough Hiccup), and three long horns curved backwards on each side of the skull. From the shoulders grew a pair of strong, large wings, indicating a capable flyer. If it could still fly, that is. But for some reason, Hiccup was pretty sure it could do that.

It had no forelegs and no claws on the wings, so it was a solid two-legged dragon, like Deadly Nadder. The hind legs were armed with such of talons that it could cut a Gronckle in two without even having to really try. Even so, Hiccup had hard time deciding if its tail was still more dangerous than the talons. The long tail was equipped with nasty spikes the length of Hiccup, scattered randomly around the tail and covering every direction. On top of that it had also the two rows of spikes going down from the skull to the very tip of the tail. That dragon, if any, was really designed to kill.

_Do you like him, Hiccup? Deathslinger is last of his kind, only one that remains from that particular breed… now what was the name you humans gave to them…-oh yes, he's the last Lethal Exterminator. Quite a fitting name, eh?_

"Yeah…" Hiccup muttered. He hoped he could have seen it alive, see the color of its scales and admire its strength.

_He was black. And purple_, Unity said, like he was reading Hiccup's mind (and so he was). _Deathslinger was the first who achieved a full unity with me_, Unity said pleasurably. _His soul has become a part of mine, and so is his body. He will live as long as I do. You can break his physical form, but you can't make him leave it. Never._

_I have a handful of these skeletal servants 'stored' here in these walls, but as Deathslinger is the most powerful, he is now yours. Your dragon, Hiccup. As a commander of my army, you deserve nothing less than the last Exterminator._

Those words made Hiccup freeze on the spot. My dragon? That thought made him touch the scale hanging against his chest. He had already a dragon. Toothless. His best friend. Toothless was his dragon, not that unholy horror from the past…

"NO!" Hiccup cried out loud, turning to face the Ultimate Overlord. "That – that foul thing is NOT my dragon, my dragon is –"

_SILENCE!_ The word stroke against Hiccup mentally so hard that he was knocked out of breath and had to double over and collapse on his knees.

_How _dare_ you disobey my will like that! Or how _can_ you? It should be impossible… _Unity seemed to converse with his brothers, with one head eying Hiccup suspiciously every so often.

Hiccup groaned and lifted his weight back on his feet. The sudden burst of anger was dissipating and he was beginning to think again how awesome it would be to fly something so special as Deathslinger was. Slowly he turned to look at the skeletal dragon again, who was now stretching his bony limbs.

_Maybe that was nothing_, Unity concluded his negotiations._ Now, why don't you try riding Deathslinger?_

Deathslinger crouched and Hiccup touched its skeletal neck. The bones were smooth and clean, with no any traces of flesh left on them. It was also warm, almost hot, probably because it was just melted out of mountainside.

Hiccup took a good grip of a pair of spikes closest to the head and swung himself on its back. He couldn't really call the large vertebra to be a comfortable seat, but his right hand was now bothering him more, as it had just begun to hurt again.

As Deathslinger straightened itself on its full height, Hiccup held to the spikes for his dear life. He wasn't feeling particularly safe at the height, sitting on a slick bone. If he'd fall he would probably break all his bones. Unless his neck goes first, that is.

_Now listen, Hiccup. I'll connect Deathslinger's mind to yours so you'll be able to give him direct orders by just thinking. As he reacts to your thoughts, it's much easier for you to maneuver in an aerial battle. I bet you couldn't do that with the pathetic Night Fury of yours_, Unity added, snickering cruelly.

The disrespectful mention of Toothless made a wave of anger go up his spine, but the feeling was gone before he could say or think anything more.

Then the weirdest sensation ever caught him off guard. It was like some fleshy tentacles suddenly wrapped his brains and squeezed them violently. Hiccup slapped himself on the forehead, trying to get rid of the force pushing his brains, and almost fell from the back of the dragon because of that.

Slowly the torment faded away, but he wasn't still feeling normal. There was something alien present in his mind that he had never felt before. Slowly moving thoughts, just instincts really, wandered around his head.

It felt really awkward and weird at first, but when he got over his worst confusion, he noticed that he was able to kinda _guide_ those thoughts in the direction he wanted, like they had been his thoughts.

"Whoa, creepy…" Hiccup mumbled under his breath, as Deathslinger took a few steps forward just like he had thought it would. The skeletal dragon appeared to be continuation of his will now, literally. "Really creepy…"

_You'll get used to it eventually_, Unity sneered._ Now, you should go outside and say hello to your troops._

Almost magically Hiccup felt that that was just what he wanted to do at the moment. "Yes, master." All he had to do was to _think_ of leaving the cave, and Deathslinger was already taking him outside. Hiccup held on tightly as the skeletal dragon run through the cave almost recklessly.

It took less than thirty seconds to get at the mouth of the tunnel. Hiccup could only see the dark sky behind the barrier of rock. Was it already night now?

Hiccup mentally urged Deathslinger to climb over the pile of rubble, but the dragon didn't respond. Almost like it was waiting for something…

_MY FOLLOWERS!_ Unity's voice carried loudly to everyone at the island, and Hiccup realized there were _many_ living beings there. _NOW I PRESENT YOU YOUR LEADER IN THE BATTLE THAT YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR; COMMANDER HICCUP!_

As the final word echoed in the mental dimensions, Deathslinger jumped over the boulders and roared a terrible, ghastly roar that no living throat could produce.

Suddenly Hiccup noticed that he was looking at _hundreds_ of dragons and Vikings – the whole village of Berk. As he watched all the heads that turned towards him expectantly, he realized that being mind-controlled by an evil dragon-overlord didn't help to the awkwardness he felt when forced in front of crowds.

"Uh- hello." Hiccup stammered and waved his hand. He hoped to be somewhere else, anywhere else, really. Gods how he hated crowds. And what was the mastermind behind this – Unity – thinking, putting him as the Commander. Hiccup was beginning to suspect it was all some kind of bad joke, when the masses erupted in cheers, shouting "Unity", "Peace" and "Hiccup".

_TOMORROW HICCUP WILL LEAD YOU TO BATTLE! BUT TODAY, IS TIME FOR THE PREPARATIONS!_

_I'd suggest you to dismount now_, Unity said just to Hiccup, with amusement in his voice. As Hiccup stepped on solid ground, he added: _This may make you feel a little fuzzy._

It was like a sun was lit in a previously dark room, as hundreds and thousands of thoughts suddenly invaded his mind and twisted it in every direction. Hiccup had barely time to realize what exactly had just happened before he collapsed on his back, unconscious.

Unity chuckled. _You'll get used to it, eventually… and then the world… is _mine_!_

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**Originally this chapter was supposed to be part of the previous one, hence it's so short. Just building up for the next chap, where'll be action, and possibly some Toothless POV, too ;)**

**Until then, read and review. It really motivates me to finish sooner. -TF-**


	8. Chapter 7: Air Strike

**A/N: I hope there are still people following the story despite my slow updates...  
In this chapter you can spot a dragon species familiar from my other stories. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not gonna spoil it :P  
But yea, like promised, there's a little Toothless here, and even an (extremely) short part of Unity, too.**

**The POV changes pretty many times, so not to confuse anyone: it is Hiccup, Toothless, Hiccup, Toothless, Hiccup, Toothless, Hiccup, Unity.**

**Oh, and things are getting violent here... just saying.**

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**Chapter 7: Air Strike**

Hiccup pushed all the buzzing thoughts of his soldiers to the back of his mind as Deathslinger descended below the clouds. The wind was rather nonexistent and the fluffy clouds were providing the perfect cover. Down below was a small-ish island bathing in the first warming rays of the sun. It was cold and clear morning, and the dragons would be slow in their motions.

Earlier yesterday, when Hiccup had come to terms with the whole mind-commanding the army thing, Unity had given the orders to launch an attack against the dragon colony at dawn. The dragons which had previously nested at the lair of the Red Death had moved to an island south of the volcano. According to Unity, they had moved because the sensed his presence and got nervous. Hiccup's mission was to kill all grown-up dragons and bring the rest to Unity, as the Ultimate Overlord claimed to be still too weak to take over the dragons' mind over the distance. As the dragons grew quickly, even the hatchlings would be combat-ready in few months.

Deathslinger adjusted the direction slightly and Hiccup searched for dragons with his gaze. There were few larger ones, probably Nightmares, flying in circles over their island, but that was all Hiccup could make out from the heights. The dragons were not yet aware of the hundreds of dragon-riding Vikings that were promising doom to them.

Hiccup commanded the army, the villagers of Berk, including his father, his friends, his love, to stay above the clouds a little longer. They had all been slaved brutally by Unity, with no escape, no chance but obey. Hiccup could tell afterwards that his thoughts had been manipulated, if he thought about it carefully, but identifying it as it was happening was impossible. He could have as well become voluntarily paranoid as to try separating his thought from those inserted by Unity.

They closed in on the island, being now nearly above it. High above it. An alarmed cry from below told Hiccup that the enemy was now aware of his presence. He gave the attack order to the army above and grabbed the handle of Tooth with his left hand. In a flash he remembered distantly having said that he wouldn't kill a dragon. Hah. He had already killed the largest of dragons, and these were nothing compared to it. So he unsheathed the sword and let Deathslinger release a horrifying roar before urging the skeletal dragon to a dive.

The wind was whirling in Hiccup's ears almost loud enough to cover up the hundreds of war cries of his army. Screeching and scared dragons were pouring out from the caves that were their nests, but as they were cold-blooded, they would be no match for the already warmed-up dragons of the Vikings.

Hiccup picked one of the circling Nightmares as his target, and Deathslinger slammed against it with the full force of the dive, impaling it and still plummeting down with breathtaking speed. All the Nightmare could do was making a gurgling cry and struggle against the Exterminator, but it was in vain. Suddenly Hiccup realized that Deathslinger was intending to ram the helpless Nightmare to the ground with full speed. Startled by the note, Hiccup commanded Deathslinger to straighten the fall. The dragon obliged, at the last second.

"Brainless creature…" Hiccup muttered as Deathslinger spread its wings to halt the movement, and crushed the Nightmare against the ground with the massive claws.

One was down, and hundreds after hundreds to go. Hiccup looked up to the sky that was darkening under a growing cloud of dragons. Screeches and roars echoed everywhere. It was like all the Hel had been let loose. Hiccup stopped for a brief moment to pray for forgiveness, until he urged Deathslinger to take off and joined the aerial carnage.

* * *

The ocean was cold and wet and incredibly vast. The Night Fury didn't mind of getting wet, and the distances were no problem to such a skilled swimmer, but the coldness did hinder his movements.

Toothless snorted and swung his tail harder. He needed rest; his muscles were stiff from the long journey and coldness. He was over halfway to the human island, but he wouldn't make it there without rest. Any rock sticking out of water large enough to allow him to bathe in the sunlight would do.

That wasn't even his worst problem at the moment. The curse had been stronger at the source. Of course it was stronger at the source. Now it was unleashed, and it was looking for him. Toothless could sense the curse closing in on him. The all-consuming, never-satisfying curse. It had devoured the only things that mattered to him, and that was all because of his error in judgment. Too proud and too careless. Perfect.

* * *

Hiccup pulled Tooth out of the dragon's eye, and Deathslinger let the dead Deadly Nadder freefall into the depths of the ocean. Hiccup stared at the blade that was covered in blood and other nasty stuff that he wished he wouldn't know what it was. He struggled for not to throw up and still continued executing his mission.

Searing fire here, razor-sharp claws there. Bodies of dragons falling from the sky, with little minority having a rider on their backs.

Deathslinger pulled a loop dodging an attacking Zippleback, landed on its back and ripped the other head off. The cry emitted by the remaining head was ear-splitting as it lost the control of its own body and fell down and down and down…

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The warmth of the sun felt so good on the black scales. Toothless could have spent the whole day like that, lying in the sunlight. Something he couldn't afford right now. The curse was really close, and there were no places to hide on the little rock for an isle that he had spotted amidst the waves.

He'd had to face the curse, and he'd rather do it on land than in water. Toothless knew no better weapon than his own fire, claws and teeth. If he only could fly, he'd surely beat anything the curse could send at him. But his flight was lost along his heart to the curse, and the hope was running low.

He had seen the curse slowly taking over the human's nest back when Hiccup was recovering. He had seen the curse trying to take over Hiccup too, and he had retaliated. He had saved them both by fleeing when the situation grew too dire. But he never should have brought the boy to the hive of the curse. Of course it was a trap. It was just a little underestimation to its powers from his side. Fatal underestimation. But it wasn't over yet.

Three dots rose from the horizon, heading to his direction. Few of the many slaves that were claimed by the curse… and that _were_ the curse. Toothless dug his claws in the hard ground and arched his back. The curse wanted him dead, but it would have to try harder.

* * *

_:Take me there:_ Hiccup pointed a shaded cave entrance to Deathslinger in his mind. He had just seen several dragons retreating there, and he was going to dig them out. Hiccup grabbed tightly to the horns of the skeletal dragon as it pulled a stomach-twisting loop to avoid a berserk Nightmare knocking Hiccup off the saddle.

Killing dragons was something he had wanted to do a long time ago. But then he had changed his mind when he met the thing. Odd. He wasn't quite sure anymore what had happened. It had been something drastic, something great for him. And now such a change in his ways seemed incredibly stupid. Killing dragons was, after all, quite enjoyable. Minus the blood and stuff.

Deathslinger landed just in time to nail a retreating Nadder under its enormous claws. After dispatching the poor creature they entered the cave. It was silent and gloomy. At least there was a lot space for a dragon the size of an Exterminator to walk straight.

Something didn't feel right. Sure the cave was a nest, and he would probably find very aggressive female dragons at the end. He was prepared for that. But something else was giving Hiccup chills.

The cave was just cold. Repulsive. And apparently, a maze. There were numerous tunnels splitting from the main cave, and whichever way he looked, everything looked similar. And there were junctions everywhere.

Hiccup observed his surroundings as Deathslinger slowly proceeded towards the heart of the nest. He couldn't hear a tiniest echo of the battle raging outside. Or had it ended already? No, he could sense that from the minds of his soldiers.

A tiniest of detail caught his attention and he signaled Deathslinger to stop. The moss growing at the walls and on the floor looked somehow wrong. It was pale and stiff. Like it was frozen…

Suddenly Hiccup realized that it wasn't just a little cold there, but actually sub-zero temperatures. The question was, why?

He got his answer sooner than he expected in a flash of deep cyan scales.

* * *

The salty water bit painfully in the fresh wound. Toothless grunted and pushed against the waves. Such a minor thing like pain couldn't stop a determined Night Fury. In fact, very few things could stop a determined Night Fury, and he for sure was determined.

He had things to correct. Things that should have never gone wrong. The moment he uncurled his wings and revealed Hiccup being alive to the crowd he felt it. The awakening of the curse. It had immediately infected the minds it could, although it was very slow back then.

He did his best to protect Hiccup, and it worked for a while. But how could he have told about what happened at the village to the boy? They understood each other to a level, but that was just too complex… and still Toothless felt he should have tried harder. He had failed.

However the battle wasn't over. His ancestors had been the key in stopping the curse for the first time, and he was up for the task now. Not just to lock it away, but to destroy it, forever. Nothing else would satisfy him.

He couldn't reach Hiccup now, he had no idea where he was and he couldn't look for him without being able to fly. But he didn't have to. Toothless knew what the curse wanted, and eventually, that would lead Hiccup to him. The difficult part was what would happen then.

* * *

Hiccup swung Tooth in a high arc and the white-cyan dragon hissed in anger. It prepared to breathe out and Hiccup ripped his cloak off just in time to use it as a shield against the dragon's chilling weapon: a sort of an icy breath. The cloak turned stiff and so unbearably cold that he had to drop it. Hiccup leaped backwards to avoid the remains of the freezing mist the dragon emitted, but loosed a footing, thanks to his metallic leg and slippery floor, and fell over.

He reached towards his warriors in his mind and called backup. Hiccup could sense several dragon-riding Vikings breaking out from the aerial fight and zooming towards the cave. It was just a matter of surviving a few minutes now.

Trying to get up, Hiccup noticed that he was staring at a _very _large amount of needle-like teeth preparing to shut around him. Just before reaching him the jaws were forced shut by even more powerful jaws clamped around them. Hiccup rolled out of the way as Deathslinger rammed the dragon against the wall.

The bluish dragon was almost equal in size to Deathslinger, and reminded the Exterminator in its body build too. The only differences were that it didn't have horns and the head was a lot sleeker, and that the lethal spikes in its tail was in two rows and not pointing in every direction like Deathslinger's. Of course, the icy dragon was also very much alive. And it had companions.

Even though Deathslinger had caught the upper hand of one of the dragons, there were two more attacking from different directions.

The other rushed against Deathslinger, breaking few of its ribs. The loose bones clanked on the floor. The Exterminator roared in fury and let the first dragon go, but at the same time swung its tail to the second dragon, the sharp spikes piercing deep to the insides of the dragon. Hiccup had to protect his ears from the intensity of the shriek it released.

Hiccup prepared to take on the third one that approached him, but it stopped and seemed to hesitate after one of its kind got killed by Deathslinger. It shook its head and released a massive cloud of the freezing mist. The mist become soon so thick that Hiccup couldn't see the dragon behind it.

He didn't have to wonder the dragon's weird behavior for long as it rushed through the cloud, wearing now a glittering armor of ice. Hiccup swung Tooth and stroke hard to the head of the dragon. With a clang the sword bounced off, leaving the dragon unscathed. He pointed Tooth towards the dragon and backed off slowly, the dragon following and waiting for best opportunity to strike. Behind him was Deathslinger still engaged in a kind of a wrestling with the other ice-dragon, and it was unable to help him now.

The reinforcements were near, but not near enough. Hiccup looked at his enemy, trying to find a weak spot, but it was all covered in ice. Not good. The dragon stared at him intensely and time seemed to slow down. Within seconds it would make its move which would most certainly end in his death.

He hadn't come here to die. He hadn't even wanted to come here in the first place. It was unfair. All unfair.

Hiccup felt the bitterness dwelling inside him turning into anger. This was not the fate he chose and he would not die because of that. Anyone or anything threatening him because of choices others made for him deserved to die. This was _not_ his fate!

At the same moment as the dragon attacked, Hiccup swung Tooth with all the strength fueled by his fury and hit the dragon to the side of its head. Hundreds of tiny shards of ice exploded to every direction possible. Hiccup covered his face from the sharp debris, and felt something hitting in his chest.

The pain came a second later.

Hiccup pressed his chest with both hands. The sword dropped clanking down on the cave floor. It wasn't deep, just a flesh wound. Blood was coloring his tunic red, and he pressed the wound harder. It didn't bleed much, but he had never been good at dealing with bleeding. It made him feel weak. Not very good for someone who was supposed to be a warrior.

The dragon recovered quickly from the initial shock of the armor-piercing hit, but as it tried to finish off its injured prey, a wall of swords forced it back. Help had arrived.

One particularly muscular Viking came looking over Hiccup as the others subdued the dragon. "We need healer here, the Commander is wounded!"

"It's nothing", Hiccup grunted. "The bleeding has almost stopped, see?" Hiccup showed the damaged area. The wound was rather short and not deep, and it had stopped bleeding already like Hiccup had said. But there was also something black visible trough the tear in the tunic among the wound. Hiccup was surprised. He touched the smooth texture of the scale. Because that was what it was; a black scale hanging from a string around his neck. How odd, he didn't remember having such a thing.

But now, as he held it in his hand and examined it, it was all clear again. He knew it all now. There was no thoughts from the Vikings and no anger from Unity. It was just him, and a scale. A scale of a Night Fury.

The large Viking turned to him: "Alright then, but we shall torture the dragon for days for daring to injure our Commander!"

The other Vikings cheered and raised their weapons over the captured dragon. It looked frightened out of its mind. Hiccup was feeling sick.

"No!"

Every single pair of eyes there turned to look at him, like he had gone mad.

He could order them to release the dragon. He could command a retreat and save the hatchlings from falling under Unity's control. But Unity would get to know, and he'd lose the newly found hope. He'd have to think over this carefully, and not waste the gift from the gods.

"Just let it out of it misery and be done with it. We have a mission going on", Hiccup stated dryly. The soldiers looked satisfied to the answer and did as commanded.

* * *

Unity grinned cruelly. _Of course._ Things were just getting a bit more interesting.

* * *

**Ah, Ruthless Frostbites. It's unlikely they'll show up in any of the later chapters, but they were too cool not to be used:P And they're all mine.  
Things are getting now a bit more interesting, as the next chapter is a key point in the story, and also, very hard to make lol.**

**I'm sorry I haven't answered the reviews, I'll be doing it from now on.  
Next time: Act on Instinct. Until that, read and review:) -TF-**


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